Leading questions

We're a national mental health charity and social landlord providing services across the whole spectrum, from low-level to specialist provision. A major focus is helping people to stay in, or regain, work.

It's a year since the fellowship merged with your employment and training subsidiary. How is it going?

The most common comment from both inside and outside the organisation is why it had taken so long. It was very fragmented before, and confusing to users and commissioners.

Any challenges?

There were the obvious difficulties of staff loyalties and fear of new responsibilities, but we've put a lot into development and training. We haven't lost any expertise and have given people lead responsibilities, who've become champions in certain areas.

Approaching your 50th anniversary, how do you see the next 50 years?

We have a lot of history to build on. We're going to fund a significant piece of research, to be of benefit for the future. The difficult issue we face is how competitive the sector is. We get 99.9% of our work through tendering, which often comes down to the cheapest. We value staff training, development and the environment, and that costs money.

We try to do something different every year. There are amazing and enriching life stories which we decided to highlight this year.

Is there still a stigma surrounding mental health issues?

Terribly. Every now and then there are glimmers and a lot of very brave people talking about their experiences, which can command attention nationally. At a local level, there is still a lot of prejudice in trying to open a service. Some people are still very ill-informed and unwilling.

Was your background in mental health?

I trained as a social worker, working with families. Many had major difficulties stemming from mental health problems, so I became interested in that. I then worked in the voluntary sector before moving into management.

You commute between Cheshire and London. What are the benefits?

It's really important for national organisations to not become so London-centric. Things do work differently in other parts of the country. As a chief executive, it's important to remember that.

What's your management style?

To be utterly open and utterly honest.

What are you currently reading?

Most of the time it's government reports but for myself it's Engleby, by Sebastian Faulks.